Theater Listings for July 1-7

Charlayne Woodard (above, standing), leads the cast of “War,” the latest play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, at the Claire Tow Theater. See listing below.CreditSara Krulwich/The New York Times

June 30, 2016

A critical guide to productions in New York City, including shows in previews.

Approximate running times are in parentheses. Theaters are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of current productions, additional listings, showtimes and ticket information are at nytimes.com/theater. A searchable, critical guide to theater is at nytimes.com/events.

Previews and Openings

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (performances start on Thursday) Have the Athenian woods fallen victim to gentrification? After losing its longtime home to urban redevelopment, the Drilling Company’s Shakespeare in the Parking Lot has taken possession of a new square of asphalt. The director Kathy Curtiss will present Shakespeare’s fairyland fairy tale, now relocated to a shifting Lower East Side. Parking lot behind the Clemente, 114 Norfolk Street, Lower East Side, shakespeareintheparkinglot.com. (Alexis Soloski)

‘Oslo’ (in previews; opens on July 11) The playwright J.T. Rogers (“The Overwhelming,” “Blood and Gifts”) can make the political seem deeply personal. In his new play, he explores the origin of the 1993 Oslo Accords, the historic agreement between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Yasir Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization chairman. Bartlett Sher directs a peaceable cast including Jennifer Ehle and Jefferson Mays. Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street, 212-239-6200, lct.org. (Soloski)

‘Privacy’ (previews start on Saturday; opens on July 18) How much do your friends and family know about you? And what intimate secrets has your phone, computer or government collected? James Graham’s playful new drama, directed by Josie Rourke, explores what privacy means in the present day and the ways in which technology, society and even your Xbox might infringe on it. After an earlier run at London’s Donmar Warehouse, the play has been reimagined for a New York audience. Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, East Village, 212-967-7555, publictheater.org. (Soloski)

‘PTP/NYC’ (previews start on Tuesday; “Good” opens on July 12, “No End of Blame” opens on July 13) The Potomac Theater Project likes to go deep — and not only because its favored theater is located several stories underground. This season’s roster of plays, which run in repertory, includes Howard Barker’s “No End of Blame,” about a Hungarian cartoonist who runs afoul of the state, and C.P. Taylor’s “Good,” about a German intellectual who observes Hitler’s rise. Atlantic Stage 2, 330 West 16th Street, Chelsea, 866-811-4111, ptpnyc.org. (Soloski)

‘Runaways’ (performances start on Wednesday) The playwright and composer Elizabeth Swados, who died in January, remains best known for her first full-scale musical, which played on Broadway in 1978. Based on interviews with real child runaways that were transformed into songs, speeches and poems, the piece is now being revived by the Encores Off-Center series, under the direction of Sam Pinkleton. City Center Mainstage, 131 West 55th Street, 212-581-1212, nycitycenter.org. (Soloski)

Broadway

★ ‘An Act of God’ Playing the Almighty, descended to Earth to give some acerbic advice to benighted humanity, Sean Hayes, of “Will and Grace” fame, brings his appealingly perky charm to David Javerbaum’s pricelessly funny fusillade of irreverence, originally seen last season. Easily the funniest 90 minutes on a New York stage right now (1:30). Booth Theater, 222 West 45th Street, 212-239-6200, anactofgod.com. (Charles Isherwood)

★ ‘The Color Purple’ A makeover made in heaven. The director John Doyle has slimmed down and toned up a show that seemed leaden and garish in its original Broadway incarnation. This musical version of Alice Walker’s celebrated novel about black women finding their voices — which features Heather Headley and, in a star-making performance, Cynthia Erivo — is a triumph of elemental, emotional storytelling. (2:35). Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, 242 West 45th Street, colorpurple.com, 212-239-6200. (Ben Brantley)

★ ‘The Crucible’ The Devil returns to Broadway, as the director Ivo van Hove and a dazzling international cast — led by Ben Whishaw, Sophie Okonedo, Saoirse Ronan and Ciaran Hinds — plumb the raw terror in Arthur Miller’s tale of paranoia and witch hunting in Salem. An endlessly revived historical drama from 1953 suddenly feels like the freshest, scariest play in town (2:45). Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th Street, thecrucibleonbroadway.com, 877-250-2929. (Brantley)

★ ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ This timely new production of the much-loved and much-revived 1964 musical comedy honors the show’s ebullience of spirit, as embodied in the Jewish milkman Tevye (an assured and affecting Danny Burstein), living in a Russian shtetl in the early 20th century. But as directed by Bartlett Sher with his customary sensitivity (“The King and I,” “South Pacific”), this multihued staging moves to a heart-stopping conclusion. It’s just a musical, no? Yes, but what a musical (2:35)! Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway, at 53rd Street, 212-239-6200, fiddlermusical.com. (Isherwood)

‘Fully Committed’ Jesse Tyler Ferguson is a comic dynamo giving vivid voice to more than 40 characters in Becky Mode’s 1999 comedy about a reservation-taker at a high-end New York restaurant. But watching this beleaguered and harassed character’s travails in the age of income inequality leaves the play with a sour aftertaste (1:30). Lyceum Theater, 149 West 45th Street, 212-239-6200, fullycommittedbroadway.com. (Isherwood)

★ ‘Hamilton’ Yes, it really is that good. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s rap-driven portrait of the rise and fall of Alexander Hamilton, directed by Thomas Kail, makes us feel the unstoppable, urgent rhythm of a nation being born. A show that changes the language of the American musical, while offering resounding evidence that this beleaguered genre is not only surviving but thriving (2:45). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, 877-250-2929, hamiltonbroadway.com. (Brantley)

★ ‘The Humans’ Stephen Karam’s extraordinary comedy-drama — the finest of the season — has transferred to Broadway with its prized virtues intact: a superlative cast; direction from Joe Mantello that deftly navigates its shifts in tone; and, of course, Mr. Karam’s delicate but trenchant writing, depicting with great humor and empathy a middle-class family on the edge of the abyss (1:35). Helen Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street, 212-239-6200, telecharge.com. (Isherwood)

‘On Your Feet!’ This latest jukebox musical to plug in to Broadway’s power strip tells the story of Gloria and Emilio Estefan’s rise to pop-chart success with crowd-pleasing flair and plenty of itchy-feet-making dance music. The vibrant Ana Villafañe and Josh Segarra star as the Cuban-born Estefans (2:20). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, 877-250-2929, onyourfeetmusical.com. (Isherwood)

★ ‘School of Rock: The Musical’ Andrew Lloyd Webber’s friskiest show in decades. Based on the 2003 movie, this story of a rock ’n’ roll nerd (played by Alex Brightman, a bouncing Super Ball of energy) who teaches a class of regimented fifth graders (a fabulous band of preadolescents) to “stick it to the man” is as amiably easygoing as it is loud (2:20). Winter Garden Theater, 1634 Broadway, at 50th Street, schoolofrockthemusical.com, 212-239-6200. (Brantley)

★ ‘She Loves Me’ Scott Ellis’s rapturous revival of this 1963 musical about love at the workplace in old Budapest is a reminder of the pleasures of exalted ordinariness. Embodied by an expertly attuned cast that includes Zachary Levi, Jane Krakowski and a honey-throated Laura Benanti, this sumptuously produced work has a lingering and deeply satisfying sweetness usually lacking in brassier shows (2:20). Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, 212-239-6200, roundabouttheatre.org. (Brantley)

★ ‘Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed’ George C. Wolfe’s reimagining of this all-black musical from 1921 often feels as if it’s been written according to a checklist of essential historical and editorial points to be made. But the clunky exposition doesn’t overwhelm the sweeping grace of its vintage musical numbers, vibrantly choreographed by Savion Glover, or Audra McDonald’s robust, witty turn as a Jazz Age chanteuse (2:40). Music Box Theater, 239 West 45th Street, 212-239-6200, shufflealongbroadway.com. (Brantley)

‘Waitress’ A thrilling performance by Jessie Mueller (“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical”) brings some much-needed depth of feeling to this slick but superficial musical based on the movie about a pie-baking diner worker in distress. The score, by the pop singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, is also beguiling, but Diane Paulus’s production flattens the ancillary characters into cartoons (2:35). Brooks Atkinson Theater, 256 West 47th Street, waitressthemusical.com, 877-250-2929. (Isherwood)

Off Broadway

‘Cagney’ When the hero of Robert Creighton, Christopher McGovern and Peter Colley’s Hollywood musical shows his stuff as a tap dancer, you may want to buy war bonds. Otherwise, this show has a pleasantly cartoonish revue vibe (2:20). Westside Theater Upstairs, 407 West 43rd Street, 212-239-6200, cagneythemusical.com. (Anita Gates)

‘Daddy Long Legs’ This sweet, beautifully sung and only occasionally unsettling musical adaptation of Jean Webster’s 1912 novel is predicated on the lengthy correspondence between a pert orphan and her anonymous benefactor. Even if the relationship between the adorable Jerusha and the debonair Jervis reads as at least a little creepy, their voices twine charmingly (2:15). Davenport Theater, 354 West 45th Street, 212-239-6200, daddylonglegsmusical.com. (Soloski)

★ ‘Drunk Shakespeare’ Probably you’ve seen streamlined, amped-up productions of Shakespeare before, but the gimmick here is that as the performance of “Macbeth” begins, one of the actors downs a mind-fogging number of shots. What follows is a wild mash-up of Shakespeare and pop-culture references that seems chaotically improvised but takes a deceptive amount of skill to execute. The audience sits right up against the action and sometimes gets drawn into it (1:30). The Lounge, Roy Arias Stages, 300 West 43rd Street, fourth floor, drunkshakespeare.com. (Neil Genzlinger)

★ ‘The Effect’ The irreducibility of love is the subject of Lucy Prebble’s very clever — and ultimately more than clever — play about a couple who meet as guinea pigs for a clinical trial for an antidepressant. David Cromer’s deeply empathic production — and Susannah Flood and Carter Hudson’s intense central performance — remind us that in exciting theater, feeling trumps science (2:00). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, West Village, 212-868-4444, barrowstreettheatre.com. (Brantley)

★ ‘Hadestown’ A folk opera by Anais Mitchell adapted from the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Ms. Mitchell’s beautiful score is enhanced by superb performances (Patrick Page is a standout as Hades) and Rachel Chavkin’s spare but inventive direction (2:05). New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, 212-460-5475, nytw.org. (Isherwood)

“Here I Sit, Broken Hearted … a Bathroom Odyssey’ This hourlong exercise in puerile scatology seemingly aspires to emulate, oh, perhaps “The Book of Mormon” in its exaltation of the coarse and the crude. In skits built around men’s room graffiti, it fleshes out primitive anatomical renderings and dime store doggerel with song, dance and lightning-fast comic riffs. But its frantic exertions and straining after wit prove exasperating (1:00). Beckett Theater at Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, 212-239-6200, telecharge.com (Andy Webster)

‘Himself and Nora’ James Joyce was a lovely tenor, so a musical retelling of his life with Nora Barnacle makes a certain kind of sense. Jonathan Brielle’s conventional show is a curious means of going about it, though. Directed by Michael Bush and starring Matt Bogart as Joyce and Whitney Bashor as Nora, it’s foreign in style and spirit to Joyce’s writing and the couple’s own milieu. Nothing here challenges the mind (2:15). Minetta Lane Theater, 18 Minetta Lane, Manhattan; 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com. (Laura Collins-Hughes)

★ ‘Incognito’ Mysteries abound in Nick Payne’s lively, self-examining drama of ideas, including the kind you find on tabloid television. But in this multistoried play about memory and neuropsychology, the biggest mystery of all is the human brain. Doug Hughes directs an astonishingly supple cast of four (Geneva Carr, Charlie Cox, Heather Lind and Morgan Spector) in 21 parts (1:30). City Center Stage I, 131 West 55th Street, 212-581-1212, nycitycenter.org. (Brantley)

‘Katdashians! Break the Musical!’ It’s a mash-up: the Kardashians grafted onto a “Cats”-like musical. It’s not completely mindless fun: There’s a theme about the addictive quality of empty celebrity-ism, as well as an empowerment message for one particular character. A working knowledge of Kardashian lore is necessary to get the full impact (1:30). Elektra Theater, 300 West 43rd Street, katdashiansthemusical.com. (Genzlinger)

‘The Marvelous Wonderettes’ When the scheduled singers at a 1958 senior prom cancel, the title characters of this jukebox musical step in. The quartet sings hits of the era — all from a female perspective — and in the second act they return at their 10-year reunion, weathered and wiser (2:00). Kirk Theater, Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, 212-239-6200, telecharge.com. (Webster)

‘One Funny Mother’ In this solo show, Dena Blizzard jokes about her children and her husband, but she never really makes her household anything other than a generic one. There are plenty of laughs but no overarching theme or point. It’s a show aimed at parents, especially young mothers, who want to foster the idea that raising children is an impossibly demanding task (1:30). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, 212-239-6200, onefunnymother.com. (Genzlinger)

‘Ruthless!’ This spiked Shirley Temple of a show, which first opened in 1992 and now returns with less fizz, follows the adventures of Tina Denmark (Tori Murray), a stage-struck prepubescent with occasional homicidal tendencies. But what must have once seemed wildly satirical could practically pass for documentary (1:35). St. Luke’s Theater, 308 West 46th Street, Clinton, 212-239-6200, ruthlessthemusical.com. (Soloski)

‘Shear Madness’ This astonishingly durable interactive murder mystery has been running in Boston since Jimmy Carter was in the White House, and some of the jokes in the late-arriving New York incarnation definitely show their years. But the tone of this improv-heavy play depends hugely on the performers. They lend an inclusive spirit of fun to the proceedings, set in a Manhattan hair salon where the audience determines which character is the most likely suspect (2:00). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, 212-239-6200, shearmadness.com. (Collins-Hughes)

‘Stet’ Kim Davies’s absorbing, unfocused drama is based — sometimes loosely, sometimes tightly — on a Rolling Stone article about a campus rape and its subsequent retraction. The play, directed by Tony Speciale, may not always tell its own story confidently, but it’s a sophisticated exploration of the attraction that extreme and graphic reports of sexual assault hold, as opposed to blurrier, more commonplace narratives (1:40). Abingdon Theater Company, June Havoc Theater, 312 West 36th Street, 212-352-3101, abingdontheatre.org. (Soloski)

‘Trip of Love’ This bloated concoction takes a seemingly random collection of Top 40 hits from the 1960s and turns them into dance numbers, with a sparse, clichéd girl-meets-boy story woven in. Ridiculous stuff, but the big-budget sets are sometimes fun (1:50). Stage 42, 422 West 42nd Street, 212-239-6200, tripoflove.com. (Genzlinger)

★ ‘Turn Me Loose’ A brilliant Joe Morton (now of “Scandal” fame) channels the groundbreaking comic and activist Dick Gregory in his prime in this scabrously funny — and, sadly, still all too relevant — show written by Gretchen Law (1:30). Westside Theater, 407 West 43rd Street, 212-239-6200, turnmelooseplay.com. (Isherwood)

★ ‘White Rabbit, Red Rabbit’ Each Monday a new actor will meet the challenge of this engaging, enigmatic solo play (with the audience in a supporting role) by the Iranian writer Nassim Soleimanpour. The performer sees the script only when he or she steps onstage. A schedule of performers is available on the website (1:15). Westside Theater, 407 West 43rd Street, 212-239-6200, whiterabbitredrabbit.com. (Isherwood)

Off Off Broadway

★ ‘The Grand Paradise’ The immersive theater troupe Third Rail (“Then She Fell”) has created a lush, 1970s-style tropical resort for virtual hedonists. An experience that allows you to have and remember a wild vacation simultaneously, with both romantic promise and retrospective regret. Be prepared to be touched a lot, and to hear New Age gobbledygook about love and death (2:00). 383 Troutman Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn, 718-374-5196, thegrandparadise.com. (Brantley)

‘Puffs, Or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic’ Aimed at grown-up Potterphiliacs, Matt Cox’s teasingly affectionate, fast-paced parody of the Hogwarts universe embraces, with varying success, the nerds whom the sorting hat assigns to the house called Puff. The fine ensemble includes the sublimely hilarious Madeleine Bundy as Harry (1:20). The Peoples Improv Theater, 123 East 24th Street, thepit-nyc.com. (Collins-Hughes)

Extravaganzas

‘New York Spectacular’ A shiny, dispiriting Rockettes extravaganza with direction and choreography by Mia Michaels and a script by Douglas Carter Beane, this misshapen enterprise is seemingly aimed at people who would rather sit back and watch a sanitized simulation of the city than engage with the messy real thing. The Rockettes are majestic, but the show around them could use a lot less cynicism (1:30). Radio City Music Hall, 866-858-0008, rockettes.com/newyork. (Collins-Hughes)

Long-Running Shows

‘Aladdin’ The Disney movie refashioned for the stage, with shtick, sparkles and silliness cutting the syrup (2:20). New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street, 866-870-2717, aladdinthemusical.com.

‘An American in Paris’ The ballet luminary Christopher Wheeldon makes a triumphant debut as a Broadway director with this rhapsodic stage adaptation of a classic musical with a heavenly Gershwin score. Pure joy (2:30). The Palace Theater. 1564 Broadway, at 47th Street, ticketmaster.com, 877-250-2929.

‘Les Misérables’ The celebrated musical about that hard-luck bread-stealer is back — again (2:50). Imperial Theater, 249 West 45th Street, 212-239-6200, telecharge.com.

‘Perfect Crime’ The murder mystery that has been investigated since 1987 (1:30). The Theater Center, 210 West 50th Street, 800-745-3000, perfect-crime.com.

‘The Phantom of the Opera’ Who was that masked man anyway (2:30)? Majestic Theater, 247 West 44th Street, 212-239-6200, telecharge.com.

‘Sex Tips for Straight Women From a Gay Man’ Part bachelorette party at Chippendales, part embarrassing midnight show in Pigalle (1:20). 777 Theater, 777 Eighth Avenue, at 47th Street, 888-841-4111, sextipsplay.com.

Last Chance

★ ‘Confusions’ and ‘Hero’s Welcome’ (“Hero’s Welcome” closes on Saturday; “Confusions” closes on Sunday) These early and recent comedies, written and directed by Alan Ayckbourn and performed in repertory, demonstrate its author’s singular dramatic shorthand for summoning characters with complete, quirkily detailed histories, as sad as they are funny. A reminder that for this amazingly fecund playwright, now 77, there are no small parts, in life or on stage (“Hero’s Welcome” runs 2:20; “Confusions” runs 2:05) 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, 212-279-4200, 59e59.org. (Brantley)

‘The Flying Doctor by Molière (Over and Over and Over)’ (closes on Saturday) Molière’s early wisp of a one-act “The Flying Doctor” is performed repeatedly in this ambitious deconstruction by flexCO, which intersperses live indie music and various borrowed texts. But the show’s disparate elements become a muddle, and the production skips a vital step: figuring out how to let Molière’s humor breathe the comic oxygen of today (1:36). Central Booking, 21 Ludlow Street, flexcodot.com. (Collins-Hughes)

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Erik Lochtefeld and Beth Behrs in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York City,” a comedy by Halley Feiffer at the Lucille Lortel Theater.CreditMatthew Murphy for The New York Times

‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York City’ (closes on Sunday) Halley Feiffer’s new comedy about cancer is as deeply felt as its title as long, as it probes the tender spot that exists between laughter and pain. Trip Cullman directs an ace cast that includes Beth Behrs, Lisa Emery and Erik Lochtefeld (1:25). Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street, West Village, 866-811-4111, mcctheater.org. (Brantley)

From left, Scarlett Alice Johnson, Debra Baker and Sean Michael Verey in “Radiant Vermin” at 59E59 Theaters.CreditSara Krulwich/The New York Times

‘Radiant Vermin’ (closes on Sunday) A grim fairy tale from Philip Ridley (“Mercury Fur”) about a Faustian bargain made by upwardly mobile, downwardly moral newlyweds (Scarlett Johnson and Sean Michael Verey).Directed at a bouncy pace by David Mercatali, this is a blithely told fable for the age of unaffordable housing, blunt in its didacticism but often nastily entertaining (1:35). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, 212-279-4200, 59e59.org. (Brantley)

★ ‘Shining City’ (closes on Sunday) Seeing a ghost has done wonders for Matthew Broderick, who gives his best stage performance in years as a haunted widower in Conor McPherson’s wonderful play about loneliness in Dublin. This revival, directed by Ciaran O’Reilly, brings out the cozy humanity in a play that probes the mind’s darkest corner, which also stars the excellent Billy Carter as a troubled therapist (1:30). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, 212-727-2737, irishrep.org. (Brantley)

‘War’ (closes on Sunday) This latest work from the dazzlingly talented Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (“Gloria,” “An Octoroon”) is a confused play about cultural confusion, a consideration of identity — racial, social, even biological — that never fully settles into a coherent identity of its own. Lileana Blain-Cruz directs this multilevel portrait of family as civil conflict, and the able cast is led by a luminous Charlayne Woodard (2:15). Claire Tow Theater, Lincoln Center, 150 West 65 Street, 212-239-6200, lct.org/lct3. (Brantley)